TRUCKS: Norm Benning extends record no-lap streak to five straight races

PHOTO: Jared C. Tilton, Getty Images North America

Norm Benning picked up the 11th last-place finish of his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career in Saturday’s Fred’s 250 Powered by Coca-Cola at the Talladega Superspeedway when his #6 H & H Transport Chevrolet fell out with engine trouble without completing any of the 95 laps.

The finish, which came in Benning’s 180th series start, was his second of the season, his first since Kentucky, nine races ago. The finish put Benning into a three-way tie for the third-most last-place runs in series history, tying 1999 LASTCAR Truck Champion Phil Bonifeld and two-time title winner Mike Garvey. There have now been five consecutive Truck Series races where the last-place finisher failed to complete a single lap, a new NASCAR record.

After missing the first three races of 2017, Benning has made every race since, and has also entered a second truck, the #57, in several races to fill out short fields. In that time, Benning’s best finish of the year came at Eldora, where he rebounded from a DNQ in 2016 to finish a strong 13th. For Talladega, Benning would not enter his team truck, the #57, and only field his primary #6. For the first time since Chicagoland, the #6 would also carry associate sponsorship as Woodstock, Georgia’s H & H Trucking would have its logos on the rear quarter-panels.

Benning ran slowest of the 29 drivers who completed at least one lap in Friday’s opening practice. His best lap of 167.968mph was more than seven full seconds off the pace of session leader Cody Coughlin. He found some speed in Happy Hour, ranking 21st of 26 with a lap of 175.298mph. But in qualifying, he was the only driver who failed to turn a lap, and would start 31st on the grid. He was still guaranteed a starting spot in the field, a grid which was reduced from a full 32 after Mike Affarano withdrew his #03 Calumet City Auto Parts / Stop Bullying Chevrolet on Friday.

On Saturday, Benning, along with Josh Reaume in Beaver Motorsports’ #50 Ever-Fi Chevrolet, was sent to the rear for the start for unapproved adjustments. Both were joined by Kaz Grala, who one lap before the green fell back from 12th on the grid due to an engine change. By that point, Benning was not on the track, citing engine trouble. Another truck, Joe Nemechek in his #87 D.A.B. Constructors Chevrolet, surrendered 21st on the grid to line up next to Reaume in the back, one row behind Grala.

When the field took the green, Nemechek lost touch with the pack as the field accelerated, then pulled in after two laps to take home 31st. Presiding over his son John Hunter Nemechek’s team, the NEMCO Motorsports crew recovered from a mid-race accident to come home 6th – just enough to make the next round of the Playoffs. Grala was next to fall out, eliminated in the day’s first multi-truck accident on Lap 19, and lost his own spot in the Playoffs as a result.

Rounding out the Bottom Five were Ryan Truex, whose #16 Bass Pro Shops / Tracker Boats Toyota was gobbled-up in the Grala accident, and Regan Smith, whose #92 BTS Tire & Wheel / Advance Auto Parts Ford was eliminated in the Turn 3 wreck that damaged John Hunter Nemechek’s Chevrolet.

Saturday’s race went to Parker Kligerman, his second Truck Series victory and his first since this same Talladega round in 2012. This time around, Kligerman drove for longtime car owner Charlie Henderson, whose team was featured on this site earlier this year at Eldora. Though active in NASCAR’s top three series since 1982, this was only the team’s 41st Truck Series start, and marked Henderson’s first NASCAR victory since June 3, 1989.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked Benning’s first Truck Series last-place finish at Talladega and his first on a plate track since the 2011 opener at Daytona. It was also the first Talladega last-place finish for the #6 in Truck Series history.
*Benning joins Mike Harmon, whose engine let go in 2014, as the only two drivers to fail to complete a lap of a Truck Series race at Talladega. Harmon himself finished 20th on Saturday in TJL Racing’s #1 Chevrolet.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
31) #6-Norm Benning / 0 laps / engine
30) #87-Joe Nemechek / 2 laps / vibration
29) #33-Kaz Grala / 18 laps / crash
28) #16-Ryan Truex / 19 laps / crash
27) #92-Regan Smith / 53 laps / crash

2017 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Norm Benning Racing (5)
2nd) Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing (4)
3rd) Copp Motorsports (3)
4th) NEMCO Motorsports (2)
5th) Halmar Friesen Racing, Henderson Motorsports, MB Motorsports, MDM Motorsports, TJL Motorsports (1)

2017 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (19)

2017 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

Entry List Storylines: Talladega

Mark Thompson drove a Henley Gray-owned car
similar to this in his lone Cup start in 1992.
PHOTO: Trading Card Database

CUP SERIES
Alabama 500 at Talladega

For just the second time this year, and the first time since May, there will be three consecutive 40-car fields in NASCAR’s elite division. Missing from Charlotte are the #51 Chevrolet of Rick Ware Racing, which has been 0-for-3 on starting plate races in 2017, and Motorsports Business Management, which is reportedly finishing a second Cup car to enter alongside the #66 at Martinsville.

Replacing the #66 and #51 this week are two returning teams:

The first returning team is Beard Motorsports, which has run exclusively on the plate tracks. XFINITY Series regular Brendan Gaughan once again climbs behind the wheel of a #75 Beard Oil Chevrolet that has impressed this season. Gaughan began the year with an 11th-place run in the Daytona 500, recovered from front valence damage at the start at Talladega to finish 26th, and ran a season-best 7th in July’s return to Florida. Gaughan’s best Cup finish – and lone Top 5 in the series – came in this very race in 2004, when he ran 4th for Doug Bawel.

For the first time since Premium Motorsports acquired all the assets of Tommy Baldwin Racing in September, Baldwin's #7 Golden Corral / Katerra Chevrolet will enter a Cup Series race with Justin Marks behind the wheel. The 2016 Mid-Ohio winner in the XFINITY Series returns to the #7 for the first time since his Cup debut at Sonoma in 2013, when he finished 30th, and makes his first Cup start since the 2015 Sonoma race, where he ran 30th again for Front Row Motorsports. Marks has made five Talladega starts in ARCA with a best finish of 8th in 2007, and ran 11th there for Chip Ganassi Racing last year. Premium is expected to field the #7 again at Martinsville in two weeks with Hermie Sadler driving and sponsorship from the Virginia Lottery.

Premium Motorsports' original two cars have perhaps the most interesting lineup for Sunday’s race:

D.J. Kennington makes his first Cup start since the Coke Zero 400 in July. It’s been a rough season for the Canadian, who raced his way into the Daytona 500 only to be involved in a multi-car crash, was the only driver to DNQ at Talladega, and blew an engine in July. This week, he drives Premium’s #55 instead of the #15 in July, carrying sponsorship from Dirt and Rock. Kennington will also run double-duty this weekend, making his first Truck Series start since Mosport, this time in Premium's #15 Loser's Bar and Grill Chevrolet.

Driving the primary Premium car, the #15 Chevrolet, will be 65-year-old Mark Thompson. A veteran of the ARCA Racing Series, where he’s run chiefly on the superspeedways for more than two decades, Thompson eyes his first Cup start since June 14, 1992, when he finished next-to-last ahead of Andy Belmont at Pocono. That race, more than 25 years ago, marked Alan Kulwicki’s fifth and final Cup win. Just as in 1992, when he drove for Henley Gray, and this year, when he made two XFINITY starts for Motorsports Business Management, Thompson will carry sponsorship from Phoenix Air. According to racing-reference.info writer nascarman, Thompson’s return is not the longest gap between Cup starts. The record remains with Jimmy Ingram, 28 years from the 1952 Southern 500 to his return at Dover in 1980.

Joey Gase also returns to the Cup Series for his sixth start of the season and his first since Bristol in August. As at Bristol, he will drive the #23 for BK Racing, this time with the Dr. Pepper colors and, in conjunction with his cause for the Donate Life, the name of organ donor Jerred Bowles on the TV panel. Gase ran for Premium Motorsports at Talladega this past spring, where he finished a career-best 21st. His drafting partner in the #83 Dustless Blasting Toyota was slated to be Corey LaJoie, but the driver indicated on Tuesday he would not be racing. Taking his place will be Gray Gaulding, who ran 20th in the spring.

Both BK Racing and Premium Motorsports will be ones to watch at the start of Sunday’s race. Back in May, both Premium’s #55 and BK’s #83 pulled into the garage area on the opening lap to switch over from qualifying to race setup, including a change of fluids, which cost each eight laps. This strategy may have been used since both cars were in a “go-or-go-home” situation in qualifying against D.J. Kennington’s Gaunt Brothers Racing #96. So long as another car isn’t entered, such a strategy may not be necessary.

A broken hub at Charlotte left Cole Whitt 34th at the finish, 42 laps down, marking TriStar Motorsports’ fifth-straight finish of 30th or worse. A restrictor-plate race, and the chance for a better finish, could not have come at a better time. Other than an early engine failure at Daytona in July, the #72 Chevrolet has been fast on the superspeedways. Whitt came close to his first Top 10 in the Daytona 500 before he ran out of fuel on the final lap, but still finished 18th, a run improved by a 16th at Talladega in May. TriStar’s best Cup finish at Talladega remains a 6th by Greg Sacks on July 25, 1993.

Go FAS Racing will also be a single-car team to watch as Matt DiBenedetto looks to follow-up his 9th-place run the Daytona 500, 18th at Talladega, and 13th in the Coke Zero 400. DiBenedetto also scored a 23rd-place finish last week in Charlotte, ending a streak of four consecutive 31st-place runs with his best finish since he ran 8th at Indianapolis.

Also, don’t overlook Leavine Family Racing, whose driver Michael McDowell has another golden opportunity for a strong run before Kasey Kahne takes over the #95 in 2018. McDowell’s plate finishes in 2017 were a 15th in the Daytona 500, 34th after a crash at Talladega, and a season-best 4th in the Coke Zero 400. A spin at Charlotte ruined a strong start to the weekend where he lined up 16th on the grid, handing him his fourth-straight finish of 23rd or worse. In this race last year, McDowell finished 16th, his second-best finish at the track behind a 13th for Phil Parsons Racing in 2013.

TRUCK SERIES
Fred’s 250 Powered by Coca-Cola at Talladega

For the first time since Chicago, three rounds ago, there will be a full field of 32 trucks in Saturday’s Truck Series race. It will be the 13th full field in 19 races run in 2017. Missing from the Las Vegas entry list are three LASTCAR contenders: Jennifer Jo Cobb’s #0 Chevrolet (driven by Matt Mills; Cobb herself drives the #10 on Saturday), Al Niece’s #38 Chevrolet (whose driver T.J. Bell returns this week to Niece’s #45), and Norm Benning’s #57 Chevrolet (driven by Mike Senica), plus Tommy Joe Martins’ #44 Chevrolet with driver Austin Wayne Self.

Replacing these four teams are seven others who were missing from the Las Vegas field:

Welcome back Mike Affarano, who we haven’t seen in a Truck Series field since he ran 30th at Iowa on June 19, 2015. Then as now, Affarano fields his own truck, the #03 Calumet City Auto Parts / Stop Bullying Chevrolet, which was originally slated to return last month at Chicagoland. Affarano has one Truck start at Talladega to his credit, having run 24th in 2014, and also ran 29th in his ARCA debut here in 2012.

Chris Fontaine returns to attempt his first Truck Series start of 2017 following a DNQ at Daytona. As in February, the plate racing Fontaine drives his own #47 Chevrolet with returning sponsorship from Glenden Enterprises. Fontaine has a pair of Top 10s in his seven Talladega starts: a 7th in 2014 and an 8th in 2015. He ran 23rd here last year.

Bolen Motorsports is back in the show for the first time since Mosport in September. This week’s driver of the #66 Chevrolet is 19-year-old Michigan driver Vinnie Miller, who last month made his XFINITY Series debut for JD Motorsports at Chicagoland, finishing 29th. Saturday will mark Miller’s first superspeedway start.

Clay Greenfield is back for the first time since the night race at Bristol, prepared to make his fourth start of 2017 in the #68 Titan Paint Sprayers Chevrolet. Greenfield has four Truck starts at Talladega, the best of which a 13th in 2013 when his team entered the only RAM in the field.

Premium Motorsports enters its second truck, the #15 Chevrolet, for the third time this year and the first time since Loudon. In place of Gray Gaulding and the originally-listed Reed Sorenson will be the aforementioned D.J. Kennington. Wendell Chavous remains his teammate in the full-time #49 Vydox Plus Chevrolet.

Also back in the show are NASCAR journeymen Parker Kligerman and Regan Smith. Kligerman, the 2012 race winner, makes his seventh Truck start of the season, his first since an 8th at Mosport, and will again drive Charlie Henderson’s #75 Food Country USA / Lopez Wealth Management / Tide Pods Toyota.

Regan Smith, a 2013 XFINITY winner at Talladega (and technically the 2008 Cup winner), makes his tenth Truck start of 2017 in Ricky Benton’s #92 Ford with five listed sponsors: BTS Tire & Wheel, Commercial Tire & Service, Advance Auto Parts, CarQuest, and Valvoline. It will be Smith’s first Truck star at Talladega in a decade, dating back to his 9th-place run for Bobby Ginn in 2007. Smith’s best Truck finish of 2017 came at the Daytona opener, where he finished 6th.

Mike Harmon looks to make his fourth Truck Series start of 2017 and his first since Chicagoland, where he ran 27th in his own #74 Chevrolet. This time, he is slated to run in place of Jordan Anderson in TJL Motorsports’ #1 Chevrolet, a truck he hasn’t run since a 27th-place finish at Atlanta. Harmon’s best series finish in four Talladega starts was a 22nd in 2013.

Driving MB Motorsports’ #63 Chevrolet is ARCA superspeedway veteran Bobby Gerhart, who hasn’t run a Truck Series race since this year’s Daytona opener, where he finished 21st. Gerhart has finished no worse than 17th in his two Truck starts at Talladega with a 12th in 2015 and a 17th just last year.

At the back of the field, with neither Tommy Regan nor Mike Senica in the field,  LASTCAR Truck Series title looks one-sided. Current leader Todd Peck was originally listed in the #83 Chevrolet for Copp Motorsports, but will be replaced by Spencer Boyd and sponsorship from Grunt Style. Now one finish behind Peck, but still ahead on both Bottom Fives and Bottom Tens, Joe Nemechek could close the gap with a finish on Saturday as he enters his own #87 D.A.B. Constructors Chevrolet.

Nemechek’s most recent last-place run at Bristol marked the last time the last-place finisher completed any laps. That night has since been followed by a NASCAR record four-straight races where the LASTCAR headliner failed to complete a single lap.

UPDATE (Friday): Mike Affarano has withdrawn the #03, Austin Wayne Self drives the #45 in place of T.J. Bell.

XFINITY SERIES
Next Race: Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas
Saturday, October 21, 2017

8/6/72: Robert “Paddlefoot” Wales trails final Cup start at Talladega

PHOTO: Robert Wales Collection

On August 6, 1972, Robert "Paddlefoot" Wales picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR Winston Cup Series career in the Talladega 500 at the Alabama International Motor Speedway when his #63 1970 Dodge fell out with engine problems after 1 of 188 laps. The finish came in Wales’ second series start.

A lesser-known, but no less important member of “The Alabama Gang,” Wales was born in Pleasant Grove, barely four miles north-east of the Allison family’s hometown of Hueytown. He began racing on dirt in 1959, cutting his teeth on the clay oval in Birmingham.

One of Wales’ early racers was car #14, towed to the track behind a pickup painted the same shade of navy and gold. Another was a Chevelle owned by Roy Counce which he raced at the Nashville Fairgrounds, matched against such future NASCAR drivers as Jimmy Means, Neil Bonnett, and Darrell Waltrip. Our research found these to be two of many other cars Wales raced over two decades. Wales also carried a number of local sponsors on his cars, including Guaranty Pest Control, Patrick’s Auto Service, Dave Kornegay’s Western Auto, John & Betty’s Drive-In, Glenn’s Uniform Sales, and Benward Construction.

In 1969, a crash at Huntsville nearly ended his career, sending him to the hospital for brain surgery. But just a few months later on February 21, 1970, Wales made his first NASCAR start at Daytona in the Late Model Sportsman Series (now XFINITY Series). Driving a 1966 Chevelle, Wales started 31st in the 40-car field and finished 28th. Two months later came a win at the Montgomery International Speedway, a modified race where he beat Bobby Allison, Neil Bonnett, and Tony Bettenhausen, Jr. He would return to Daytona in 1971 to finish 17th, and finished in the same spot the following year.

The 1972 Daytona finish came while driving a #63 Dodge, which may have belonged to fellow Alabama native Charlie Roberts. While the owner information is incomplete for that year’s running of the Permatex 300, it was Roberts who fielded a #63 Dodge for Wales to run at Talladega that May. Carrying hometown sponsorship from Pleasant Grove Union, Wales qualified 34th for the 50-car field, outpacing Roberts, who lined up 45th in a newer 1971 Ford. Among the nine drivers who failed to qualify for that race were NASCAR Hall of Fame members Wendell Scott and Richard Childress. While Roberts climbed to 43rd before engine trouble, an oil leak left Wales 48th at the finish, ahead of only Bill Ward and the disqualified Marty Robbins.

The race that’s the subject of this article was Wales’ return to Talladega that summer, where he again drove Roberts’ #63 Dodge. This time, Wales started 45th of 50 drivers, again beating Roberts, who this time around started last. At the end of the first lap, as Buddy Baker battled Bobby Allison for the lead, three drivers lost their engines: 24th-place starter Neil Castles (LINK) in his #06 1972 Plymouth, Roy Mayne in his #65 1972 Chevrolet, and Wales. Wales was ranked last of the three. Ahead of them in 47th was Michigan owner-driver Bill Shirey, running his final season in his #74 1970 Plymouth, and a 31-year-old Dave Marcis in his #2 1972 Dodge. The entire Bottom Five was filled in the first nine laps.

The race was won by James Hylton, the second and final of his long career. Car #48 wouldn’t win another Cup Series race until Jimmie Johnson’s first checkered flag at Fontana three decades later.

Wales never made another Cup Series start, though he would continue to run in NASCAR Late Model Sportsman and ARCA Racing Series competition for the next five years. His best recorded finish in professional stock car racing came in his last run at the Permatex 300 on February 19, 1977, when he rallied from 21st on the grid to finish 10th, besting among future XFINITY Series stars Jack Ingram, L.D. Ottinger, and Morgan Shepherd, as well as fellow “Alabama Gang” legend Red Farmer.

During this time, Wales returned home to work at a U.S. Steel plant, but remained active in other forms of racing. By 1986, he’d transitioned into racing hydroplanes, taking the state championship that year. The next season, he drove in the All Pro Modified ranks, winning seven of nine races and setting four track records, including a lap at Birmingham of 20.92 seconds. “That's when I quit for good,” said Wales, “while I had a chance to do it while I was on top.”

In 2007, Wales was inducted into the Alabama Auto Racing Pioneers Hall of Fame, where he then served as president in 2011. He’s also been active sharing his story online, where a collection of rare photos from his career can be found here as well as video on YouTube of him racing a yellow car #33 at Birmingham. He can be found on Facebook at this page.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first last-place finish for car #63 in a Cup Series race since September 7, 1962, when Glenn Killian’s 1961 Mercury broke the driveshaft after 3 laps of the Buddy Shuman 250 at Hickory. It remains the only last-place run for the number at Talladega.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
50) #63-Robert Wales / 1 lap / engine
49) #65-Roy Mayne / 1 lap / engine
48) #06-Neil Castles / 1 lap / engine
47) #74-Bill Shirey / 5 laps / ignition
46) #2-Dave Marcis / 9 laps / engine

SOURCES
*Demmons, Doug. “Robert ‘Paddlefoot’ Wales and Bill Hamner inducted into Alabama Auto Racing Pioneers Hall of Fame,” AL.com, December 16, 2007.
*DirtFans.com
*Motorsportsdirectory.com
*Robert “Paddlefoot” Wales Collection on Fotki
*RacersReunion.com: May 7, 1972: Pearson Begins His Talladega Triad (by user @tmc-chase)
*Racing-reference.info

XFINITY: Jeff Green the first NASCAR driver with 100 last-place finishes in a single series

PHOTO: NASCAR.com, Screencap by Timecard100

Jeff Green picked up the 100th last-place finish of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in Saturday’s Drive for the Cure 300 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway when his unsponsored #38 RSS Racing Chevrolet fell out with steering problems after 2 of 200 laps.

The finish, which came in Green’s 476th series start, was his eleventh of the season, his third in a row. He is the first driver in NASCAR history to score 100 last-place runs in any one of the top three national touring series. As of this writing, Green has finished last at least once on each track on the current NASCAR XFINITY Series schedule except Michigan (16 starts) and Darlington (24 starts).

T-SHIRTS NOW AVAILABLE!
Get your official #LAST100 Jeff Green merchandise at RedBubble! Choose from the #38 that trailed on Saturday or the #93 that we gave to Green at Darlington. Profits from all shirt sales will go to RSS Racing.

All profits of sales of #LAST100 shirts
will go to RSS Racing.

Green’s weekend began with a last-minute strategy change at RSS Racing. Last week at Dover, RSS debuted a second “start-and-park” entry, the #38 Chevrolet. Gray Gaulding started last in the car and was on pit road when Green collided with Brandon Jones in Turn 4. Gaulding returned to the track to complete 31 laps before finishing 34th, dropping Green to his 99th last-place finish. The #38 was once again entered at Charlotte, but without a driver listed. Green was entered in the #93 for his first chance at reaching 100 last-place runs.

By Friday, RSS Racing changed its driver lineup: Green moved to the #38 while Gray Gaulding would drive the #93. The reason behind this may have been the threat of rain as Tropical Depression Nate crossed into the western Carolinas. If rain canceled qualifying while Gaulding was in the #38, the team would have been sent home because the #38 had just one start on the season, fewest of the 41 teams entered (following Friday’s withdrawal of Obaika Racing’s #77). By putting Green in the #38, the car would be guaranteed a starting spot based on Green’s Past Champion’s Provisional while the #93 would make it in on attempts: 26 versus King Autosport’s #92, second-fewest behind the #38 with four.

Rain did, in fact, cancel qualifying, so Green (32nd) and Gaulding (38th) made the field while Dexter Bean in the #92 became the lone DNQ. Green, who didn’t participate in Friday’s opening practice, ranked 30th of 41 in Happy Hour with a lap of 174.678 to session leader Sam Hornish, Jr.’s lap of 182.420mph.

When more rain pushed the race into Saturday night, starting last in the field was Reed Sorenson in JD Motorsports’ “start-and-park” #15 Chevrolet. It marked the first time in recent memory that team owner Johnny Davis entered a car that wasn’t bright red – Sorenson’s #15 was white with yellow numbers on the doors and roof. During the pace laps, Green dropped from 32nd back to 38th, running on the outside of the 19th row. Sorenson retained last as the field took the green, but the #38 dropped to the back at the end of the first lap, then came to the garage area under green. Gaulding followed one lap later. Both cars were listed as “off” by NBCSN until four laps to go in Stage 1, when both were listed officially “out” – the moment Green secured his 100th last-place finish.

Finishing 38th on Saturday was Morgan Shepherd, who lost laps with an early unscheduled stop, then slowed on the backstretch as he retired with handling issues. Sorenson’s white #15 fell out next, slowing in Turn 1, citing electrical issues. Rounding out the Bottom Five was Angela Ruch, who drew the first two cautions after a pair of near-identical spins into the outside wall.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first last-place finish for car #38 in an XFINITY Series race since November 4, 2006, when the late Jason Leffler trailed the O’Reilly Challenge due to engine troubles after 55 laps on his #38 Great Clips Toyota.
*Saturday marked just the second time in XFINITY Series history where the last-place finisher fell out with steering issues. The only other occasion came on September 17, 1988, when Kenny Burks’ #02 Williams & Burks Buick fell out after 52 laps of the Grand National 200 at Dover.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #38-Jeff Green / 2 laps / steering
39) #93-Gray Gaulding / 3 laps / electrical
38) #89-Morgan Shepherd / 13 laps / handling
37) #15-Reed Sorenson / 15 laps / electrical
36) #78-Angela Ruch / 36 laps / crash

2017 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) RSS Racing (17)
2nd) B.J. McLeod Motorsports, Shepherd Racing Ventures (2)
3rd) Chip Ganassi Racing, JD Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, Kaulig Racing, King Autosport, Motorsports Business Management, Richard Childress Racing, SS Green Light Racing (1)

2017 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (27)
2nd) Dodge, Toyota (1)

2017 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

CUP: Fiery wreck marks Ryan Newman’s first last-place finish at Charlotte since 2001

PHOTO: Rubbin's Racin' Forums

Ryan Newman picked up the 10th last-place finish of his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career in Sunday’s Bank of America 500 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway when his #31 Caterpillar Chevrolet was involved in a multi-car accident after 43 of 337 laps.

The finish, which came in Newman’s 578th series start, was his second of the season and first since Kansas, 19 races ago.

Following the last-place run at Kansas, Newman earned a number of strong runs without a single DNF. He finished no worse than 15th in the next six races, including a 4th at Dover and a 5th at Daytona in July. He survived the crash-plagued Brickyard 400 to come home 3rd, then entered the Playoffs with a streak of four consecutive finishes of 7th or better, capped by another 3rd-place finish in the cutoff round at Richmond.

The Phoenix win lifted Newman further from 16th to 11th in the standings, but a 23rd-place run in the Chicagoland opener dropped him to last in the Playoffs. Over the next two races, Newman fought his way to within two points of Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. for the final transfer spot, trying to stay on the lead lap ahead of leaders Chase Elliott and Kyle Busch. Busch passed Elliott with two laps to go and dispensed with Newman in the final corner. Those two points kept Newman from the Round of 12, sent home along with Kurt Busch, Kasey Kahne, and Childress teammate Austin Dillon.

Newman started the weekend strong, running second-fastest in Friday’s opening practice to Kyle Larson with a best lap of 191.442mph. He then made the final round of qualifying, securing 11th with a lap of 189.813mph. With Happy Hour washed out, Newman lined up inside Row 6 alongside the #10 Warriors In Pink Ford of Danica Patrick.

Starting last on Sunday was the #83 Champion Machinery Toyota of Brett Moffitt. Moffitt, along with Erik Jones and BK Racing teammate Corey LaJoie, were the only drivers who failed to turn a lap in qualifying. In fact, both Moffitt and LaJoie didn’t turn a lap in practice, raising a rules issue as to whether either car would be allowed to start. In the end, NASCAR allowed both cars to take the green, citing that BK had presented both cars for inspection and had fired their engines in the garage.

Moffitt held last at the start, followed by LaJoie on Lap 1, then on Lap 2 the spot fell to Jeffrey Earnhardt. Circle Sport with The Motorsports Group welcomed a new partner on the green #33 Hulu Chevrolet this week with “Dynamic: The Original Self-Loading Wheel Lift” on the lower edge of the rear quarter-panels. Earnhardt was the first driver to lose a lap, which came on the 16th circuit. He held the spot through the first round of pit stops under the Lap 35 competition caution, when Timmy Hill and Gray Gaulding traded the spot. Gaulding, back in Premium Motorsports’ #55 Low T Centers Toyota, held last on the restart.

The event which threw Newman into the picture occurred on Lap 44. Coming off Turn 2, Newman crossed the nose of Clint Bowyer’s #14 Haas Automation Ford running to his outside, stuffing Bowyer into the wall. The contact sent Newman, just ahead of Bowyer at the time, hard into the outside wall with the nose of the car. Both cars careened down the track but managed to keep going. While Bowyer made it to pit road, Newman’s car caught fire under the hood, forcing him to abandon the car on the apron. Newman climbed out without injury and the car was quickly extinguished, but done for the day under the “Crash Clock.” He’d fallen to last under that same caution. Bowyer managed to finish 27th.

Finishing 39th was Moffitt, also eliminated under the “Crash Clock” when he incurred a penalty while the crew was attempting repairs on pit road. Both Gray Gaulding, who came to pit road with a fire behind the right-front tire, and Cole Whitt, who went to the garage for a broken hub on the #72 TriStar Motorsports Chevrolet, stayed in the Bottom Five for much of the race, but both returned to the track. Whitt climbed to 34th while Gaulding ended up 36th. Between Gaulding and Moffitt were David Ragan and Danica Patrick, who collided after Ragan’s #38 TheHouse.com Ford spun in Turn 2 on Lap 266.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was Richard Childress Racing’s first Cup Series last-place run at Charlotte since October 8, 1989, when Dale Earnhardt’s #3 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet broke the camshaft after 13 laps of the All Pro Auto Parts 500. That race was Earnhardt’s second of five career Cup last-place runs, his first since 1982, and his first for Childress.
*This marked the first last-place finish for car #31 in a Cup Series race at Charlotte since October 11, 1992, when Bobby Hillin, Jr.’s #31 Bryant Chevrolet was disqualified from the Mello Yello 500. For more on that story, the last time a Cup Series driver was disqualified, read our feature from last year at this link.
*This was also Newman’s first last-place finish at Charlotte since May 27, 2001. Making his third start at the time, Newman won the pole for the Coca-Cola 600, less than a week after he lost the engine while leading the Winston Open. Newman led the opening 10 laps, then crashed from the lead in Turn 4.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #31-Ryan Newman / 43 laps / crash
39) #83-Brett Moffitt / 89 laps / crash
38) #10-Danica Patrick / 263 laps / crash
37) #38-David Ragan / 263 laps / crash
36) #55-Gray Gaulding / 267 laps / running

2017 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Circle Sport with The Motorsports Group (5)
2nd) Rick Ware Racing (4)
3rd) BK Racing (3)
4th) Hendrick Motorsports, Furniture Row Racing, Premium Motorsports, Richard Childress Racing, Roush-Fenway Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing (2)
5th) Chip Ganassi Racing, Front Row Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, JTG-Daugherty Racing, Motorsports Business Management, Richard Petty Motorsports (1)

2017 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (16)
2nd) Toyota (8)
3rd) Ford (6)

2017 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP